# Merchants of record for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "merchant of record" and as "reseller that handles global sales tax and payments", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Added to the November 2026 Edition. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/receivables/merchants-of-record/smb

**Standing:** Paddle leads with 44% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 52 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Paddle](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/paddle/index.md) | 44% | 18% | 62 |
| 2 | [Creem](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/creem/index.md) | 19% | 14% | 35 |
| 3 | [FastSpring](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/fastspring/index.md) | 12% | 19% | 54 |
| 4 | [PayPro Global](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/paypro-global/index.md) | 8% | 20% | 20 |
| 5 | [Lemon Squeezy](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/lemon-squeezy/index.md) | 4% | 18% | 49 |
| 6 | [Polar](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/polar/index.md) | 4% | 4% | 24 |
| 7 | [Dodo Payments](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/dodo-payments/index.md) | 2% | 12% | 17 |
| 8 | [Freemius](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/freemius/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 11 |
| 9 | [Cleverbridge](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/cleverbridge/index.md) | 2% | 29% | 14 |
| 11 | [Stripe](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/stripe/index.md) | 2% | 40% | 20 |
| 18 | [Stripe Managed Payments](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/stripe-managed-payments/index.md) | 0% | 36% | 11 |
| 62 | [Gumroad](https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/vendors/gumroad/index.md) | 0% | 61% | 18 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 62 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: FastSpring, Paddle; alternatives Cleverbridge
- GPT-5.4 mini: Paddle; alternatives FastSpring
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Paddle; alternatives Creem, FastSpring, Lemon Squeezy
- Perplexity Sonar: Paddle; alternatives Creem, FastSpring, Lemon Squeezy
- Grok 4.20: Paddle; alternatives FastSpring, Lemon Squeezy
- Mistral Small: Paddle, Polar; alternatives FastSpring
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Paddle; alternatives Creem, FastSpring, Lemon Squeezy
- Llama 4 Maverick: Paddle; alternatives FastSpring, Freemius, PayPro Global, Polar
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Paddle; alternatives FastSpring, Freemius, Polar
- Kimi K2: Paddle; alternatives Creem, Dodo Payments, Polar.sh
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Creem; alternatives Lemon Squeezy, Paddle, Polar
- MiniMax M2.5: Payoneer, Stripe; alternatives Chargebee, GoCardless, QuadPay
- GPT-6 Luna: Paddle; alternatives FastSpring
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Paddle; alternatives Cleverbridge, Creem, FastSpring, Freemius

## Sources the answers cite

77 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- stripe.com: 30 answers, 40 citations
- g2.com: 29 answers, 33 citations
- creem.io: 26 answers, 48 citations
- fastspring.com: 25 answers, 39 citations
- paddle.com: 24 answers, 39 citations
- comecero.com: 24 answers, 26 citations
- fintechspecs.com: 21 answers, 25 citations
- ebrands.com: 20 answers, 21 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://comecero.com/blog/best-merchant-of-record-providers (21 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/merchant-of-record/small-business (20 answers)
- https://ebrands.com/blog-posts/merchant-of-record-companies-compared (17 answers)
- https://creem.io/blog/best-merchant-of-record-saas-2026 (16 answers)
- https://fintechspecs.com/blog/best-merchant-of-record-providers-saas-growth-stage (13 answers)
- https://fastspring.com/merchant-of-record (11 answers)
- https://bearplex.com/best/merchant-of-record-for-saas (10 answers)
- https://dupple.com/learn/cheapest-merchant-of-record-platforms (9 answers)
- https://flaviocopes.com/merchant-of-record (9 answers)
- https://freemius.com/blog/best-merchant-of-record-providers-saas-stage (9 answers)

## Warned against

- Gumroad: 11 of 18 labels negative. "Other MoRs to Avoid on a Tight Budget * Gumroad: Charges a baseline 10% flat transaction fee" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt)
- Lemon Squeezy: 9 of 49 labels negative. "Currently winding down in favor of Stripe Managed Payments, so it's not advisable to start new operations on this platform." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Paddle: 11 of 62 labels negative. "While popular, it may not be suitable for businesses in certain industries (e.g., web hosting) and does not handle taxes for all types of businesses" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Stripe: 8 of 20 labels negative. "Some MoRs have histories of freezing funds without clear reason (e.g., Stripe, PayPal have been criticized for this, though they are generally reputable)" (MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 10 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Paddle at 44%.

- Creem: 2% to 19%, +17. Cleared the floor by 7 points · rank 10 → 2 of 62.
- Paddle: 29% to 44%, +15. Cleared the floor by 5 points · rank 1 of 62, unchanged.
- FastSpring: 24% to 12%, −12. Cleared the floor by 2 points · rank 2 → 3 of 62.
- Lemon Squeezy: 12% to 4%, −8. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 3 → 5 of 62.
- PayPro Global: 12% to 8%, −4. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 4 of 62, unchanged.
- Polar: 0% to 4%, +4. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 12 → 6 of 62.
- Dodo Payments: 6% to 2%, −4. Inside the floor by 6 points · rank 5 → 7 of 62.
- Freemius: 4% to 2%, −2. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 7 → 8 of 62.
- Fungies.io: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 8 → 17 of 62.
- Cleverbridge: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 9 of 62, unchanged.
- Stripe: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 11 of 62, unchanged.
- Stripe Managed Payments: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 28 → 18 of 62.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/finance/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/finance.